Panaji: A woman in Goa has filed a police complaint saying she was beaten up and her private parts stuffed with chilli powder over a property dispute in a village near Panaji.
The incident which occurred June 23, has resulted in the suspension of assistant sub inspector (ASI) Vithu Naik of the Mapusa police station.
Naik was reportedly unwilling to register her complaint and later filed a case only as a mere non-cognizable offence.
The woman, mother of a six-year-old girl, in her complaint claimed that three people – Sonabia Sasve, Jorge Sasve and his wife – assaulted her June 23 over a property border dispute at a programme for economically weaker sections at Camurlim village, 15 km north of Panaji.
“I was beaten up by Sonabia Sasve, Jorge Sasve and his wife with wooden sticks. They hit me on the head. When I was struggling to stay conscious, they threw chilli and turmeric power which they were carrying, on me,” the woman said in her complaint.
“Then they tried to rip my nose ring. Later, they threw more chilli and turmeric powder on me and started stuffing the powder in my private parts, which caused unbearable pain,” the woman said.
The woman’s daughter managed to escape to a neighbour’s house, from where she contacted police, who arrived with paramedics who took the woman to a district hospital in Mapusa.
However, ASI Naik at first refused to register a complaint.
He registered the offence as a non-cognizable complaint. It was only when senior police officials were informed, that a first information report was registered late Friday and Naik was suspended pending inquiry.
“Prima facie it appears that Naik’s case amounts to dereliction of duty. He should have registered the FIR considering the nature of the crime which was reported to him by the victim,” a senior police official said.
Deputy Inspector General of Police K.K. Vyas also said an inquiry has been initiated into the non-registration of the police complaint in Mapusa.
A police spokesperson said the accused people have been arrested on charges of voluntarily causing grievous hurt, criminal intimidation, assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty and wrongful restraint.